Amy Shackleton appointed CEO of The Utley Foundation
The Utley Foundation has appointed Amy Shackleton as its new CEO, succeeding Sarah Metcalfe at a pivotal moment in the Foundation’s growth and evolution. Founded in 2014 by Amy’s father, Neil Utley, with a £25 million endowment, the family-led charitable trust has invested over £10 million in grants and leveraged at least £3.5 million in additional funding to support dementia, veterans, children and young people, alongside international and refugee initiatives.
Amy has been closely involved with The Utley Foundation for a number of years, initially serving as a Trustee and more recently as Project Lead at the Music for Dementia campaign, setting up the cross-sector Music Made Easy taskforce to improve accessibility of music as well as relaunching m4dRADIO.
Amy began her career as a corporate lawyer working on M&A and governance, before moving into social impact work at StoriBoard, where she helped develop scalable, community-based responses to loneliness and isolation. She brings a wealth of experience in the fields of strategy, relationship building, governance and driving forward initiatives that are practical and scalable.
As CEO of The Utley Foundation, Amy’s role is to guide strategy across its main focus areas - Music for Dementia, veterans, children and young people and senescence research, ensuring that funding improves lives in meaningful and lasting ways.
Amy says: “Carrying forward my father’s philanthropic work is both a privilege and a responsibility. His belief in the power of music was shaped by seeing how it transformed my grandparents’ lives when they were living with dementia, and that same commitment to improving lives runs through everything the Foundation does - from veterans’ wellbeing to intergenerational work that brings communities together.”
The Utley Foundation is best known for its impactful Music for Dementia campaign, which has invested over £7 million to projects across the UK including choirs, playlist initiatives, dementia cafes, carer training and its m4dRADIO service. Amy’s appointment marks a natural moment to broaden the campaign’s power of music focus to children and young people, including intergenerational initiatives.
Amy will also deepen the Foundation’s strategic work with veterans, where a new grant-making programme launched in 2024 has already committed £1.5 million to strengthening mental health support for serving personnel, veterans and their families.
Amy continues: “The Foundation is more than a grant-maker. It is a strategic funder and an active partner. Our approach is one of ‘campaigning philanthropy’ which we believe delivers greater impact that simply writing cheques. Our strategic investment works alongside our expertise in coalition-building, advocacy and spearheading hands-on initiatives. I couldn’t be prouder to take forward my father’s philanthropic vision for the Foundation, and I look forward to evolving it for the next generation.”
ENDS
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About Music for Dementia: The Music for Dementia campaign is a charitable programme of the Utley Foundation, working to make music an integral part of dementia care. It involves more than 200 organisations from the NHS, care sector, third sector and music sector plus thousands of individual supporters, many with lived experience.
About the Utley Foundation: The Utley Foundation is a private charitable trust established by Neil Utley in 2014. The Utley Foundation established the Music for Dementia campaign in 2018 as part of its ambition to ensure music is made an integral part of care for all those living with dementia.